I have mentioned the post-war camaraderie which developed between members of the Service in spite of the fact that those members mainly worked in small groups, largely isolated from the others. One notable feature of the Bureau in 1940 was the influence of those members of the staff who had served in World War I on their younger colleagues. They had a certain clannish attitude which at first was intimidating but later became attractive to a newcomer. The clannishness which caused the initial intimidation became attractive when the younger staff members became accepted as members of the clan. The formation of the Frosterley Club in the 1970s emerged from a similar feeling of those who had been members of the RAAF Meteorological Service. John Lillywhite's Metarch Papers No 4 describes the circumstances of the formation of the Frosterley Club and how the Club got its name. The Club still meets at monthly intervals in Melbourne, Perth and Sydney. A similar Club meets regularly in Adelaide.

The AMFA section in Melbourne provided a nucleus for significant postwar developments in Australian meteorology both in synoptic meteorology and in investigations of other fundamental problems relating to the meteorological profession. There was considerable emphasis on the investigation of conditions in the upper air which was facilitated by the technological developments which significantly improved the remote sensing of upper temperature, humidity, wind, cloud and rain. The establishment of observing stations at Heard and Macquarie Islands and on the Antarctic continent also led to improvement of our knowledge of the atmosphere over higher latitudes in the southern hemisphere.

Many of those who made significant contributions to the post-war development of Australian meteorology were meteorologists who had served in the RAAF Meteorological Service. During the war years the absence of observations, particularly in the upper air, delayed progress in increasing our knowledge of the atmosphere in our region, but the meteorologists of that period were becoming aware of the problems and eager to seek answers. Post-war developments in technology provided the opportunity to achieve solutions to many of those problems.

Bureau of Meteorology